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I can see that being the case, but I've had very great Mexican food in non-border states. Many of the spices that Mexican food uses are dry spices, which can be shipped anywhere in the world without having its taste altered. In addition, due to the use of airplanes and other methods of freight, many of the "fresh" ingredients can be shipped all around the US on a day to day basis.
What matters more than the ingredients is the cook and cooks can be transplanted anywhere. I think its a bit snobby to say that only good Mexican food can be found on the border when there are great Mexican restaurants all across non border states (hell, I think someone even threw out restaurants in the Pacific Northwest here). That's what the Chicagoans (for the 2nd largest Mexican population in the US, they really are being sold short) and New Yorkers in this thread are pointing out, nothing more. If it were a matter of the ingredients only, then colder climate places in Colorado, New Mexico, and even North Texas would be more disqualified more than NYC.
No they wouldn't. Because North Texas, Colorado and New Mexico still have proximity on their side, something NYC doesn't have. Call is snobby if you want, this is C-D. Every thread with polling have votes based on regional snobbery.
I can see that being the case, but I've had very great Mexican food in non-border states. Many of the spices that Mexican food uses are dry spices, which can be shipped anywhere in the world without having its taste altered. In addition, due to the use of airplanes and other methods of freight, many of the "fresh" ingredients can be shipped all around the US on a day to day basis.
What matters more than the ingredients is the cook and cooks can be transplanted anywhere. I think its a bit snobby to say that only good Mexican food can be found on the border when there are great Mexican restaurants all across non border states (hell, I think someone even threw out restaurants in the Pacific Northwest here). That's what the Chicagoans (for the 2nd largest Mexican population in the US, they really are being sold short) and New Yorkers in this thread are pointing out, nothing more. If it were a matter of the ingredients only, then colder climate places in Colorado, New Mexico, and even North Texas would be more disqualified more than NYC.
Fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, avacados - these are the things that make the difference, not the dry spices. Also the availability of traditional Mexican food products that are easily and cheaply shipped from Mexico to border states (many, many of these products are in fact manufactured in DTLA/Vernon/Bell).
Trust me, you are never going to pay the outrageous amount of 2 bucks to get some guacamole on your meal in LA (ranges from free-50c), which was pretty much the standard price in the East Coast Mexican restaurants I've been to.
Someone else also raised a good point about the tortillas. In my experience, the tortillas on the west coast are really different than those on the east coast, especially the extra large flour tortillas for burritos - in CA they are ultra-thin, almost crepe-esque, just giving a hint of tortilla taste and not overpowering the good stuff (especially the last few bits of the folded burrito at the end) - elsewhere they tended to be much thicker, and sometimes all you got was a giant bite of burrito and rice.
Fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, avacados - these are the things that make the difference, not the dry spices. Also the availability of traditional Mexican food products that are easily and cheaply shipped from Mexico to border states (many, many of these products are in fact manufactured in DTLA/Vernon/Bell).
Trust me, you are never going to pay the outrageous amount of 2 bucks to get some guacamole on your meal in LA (ranges from free-50c), which was pretty much the standard price in the East Coast Mexican restaurants I've been to.
That's a common trend with ingredients/beverages for various ethnic cuisine. Factories that create those ingredients being located in the US cities with the most of that ethnic group. Like the big Goya warehouse in Miami.
I dropped into a Mexican place in Queens about 5 years ago and had a burrito. It was tasty! But I have to say it didn't quite taste like Mexican food for some reason. I have no idea why. I certainly wasn't biased against the experience of it since that's what I was craving. It hit a good mark, just not the mark, whatever the case with it was.
Fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, avacados - these are the things that make the difference, not the dry spices. Also the availability of traditional Mexican food products that are easily and cheaply shipped from Mexico to border states (many, many of these products are in fact manufactured in DTLA/Vernon/Bell).
Trust me, you are never going to pay the outrageous amount of 2 bucks to get some guacamole on your meal in LA (ranges from free-50c), which was pretty much the standard price in the East Coast Mexican restaurants I've been to.
Someone else also raised a good point about the tortillas. In my experience, the tortillas on the west coast are really different than those on the east coast, especially the extra large flour tortillas for burritos - in CA they are ultra-thin, almost crepe-esque, just giving a hint of tortilla taste and not overpowering the good stuff (especially the last few bits of the folded burrito at the end) - elsewhere they tended to be much thicker, and sometimes all you got was a giant bite of burrito and rice.
I still believe that technique of the chef/cook is more important. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is the responsibility of the cook to understand the ratios, seasoning, how long to roast each ingredients, which chiles to use, etc than it is to get the utmost fresh ingredients. If you take Mole, which is a very complex, what is more important, the ingredients or the chef. My money is on the chef.
As New York is concerned, i think their Mexican offerings are sub par is because lack of good Mexican chefs. Even the basic burrito i get lacks in flavor than what i find in SD/LA/Chicago, not to mention the fact some places prepare it like a pillow, where you knife and fork it. I will say that two places opened near me which are promising, but they are still few and far between.
Fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, avacados - these are the things that make the difference, not the dry spices. Also the availability of traditional Mexican food products that are easily and cheaply shipped from Mexico to border states (many, many of these products are in fact manufactured in DTLA/Vernon/Bell).
Trust me, you are never going to pay the outrageous amount of 2 bucks to get some guacamole on your meal in LA (ranges from free-50c), which was pretty much the standard price in the East Coast Mexican restaurants I've been to.
Someone else also raised a good point about the tortillas. In my experience, the tortillas on the west coast are really different than those on the east coast, especially the extra large flour tortillas for burritos - in CA they are ultra-thin, almost crepe-esque, just giving a hint of tortilla taste and not overpowering the good stuff (especially the last few bits of the folded burrito at the end) - elsewhere they tended to be much thicker, and sometimes all you got was a giant bite of burrito and rice.
Is it really that hard to get fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, and avocados in New York and the Northeast? I don't know I've never really looked at what's available in grocery stores when I've been out east. As far as spices and chiles, you'd think there'd be Mexican grocery stores somewhere in New York. I mean in the Northwest, which has a fast growing Chicano population, you can find mostly everything you'd need in most sizable towns or cities. In Portland I can get enough from a local Safeway and a stop at a small Mexican grocery--including dried ancho, arbol, and guajillo chiles, serrano and poblano chile peppers, decent tortillas, and fresh enough tomatoes, cilantro, tomatillos, and avocados--to make decent Mexican food. Although the Northwest's proximity to California helps make a lot of this much more readily available. On a very simple level, it's not that hard to get the ingredients to make decent carnitas or carne asada--and having good tortillas is another neccesity, but there's really not that many ingredients that are all that obscure unless you're cooking moles or more complicated dishes.
I always thought a lot of the poor quality of Mexican food on the East Coast was really due to the lack of an existing market for really quality Mexican food--and also in part to a sort of laziness of the cooks. If you can get away serving sub-standard Mexican food and people will eat it--often that becomes the baseline. Whereas in places where good Mexcian food is prevalant, the result is that a lot of the substandard places don't make it. In Portland, it's really only been recently that we've gotten some good Mexican restaurants--both cheap taquerias and more high end places. But you can see a market developing for people who appreciate the good stuff...
Is it really that hard to get fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, cheeses, cilantro, and avocados in New York and the Northeast? I don't know I've never really looked at what's available in grocery stores when I've been out east.
It's not that hard to get the fresh produce in the growing seasons, and even in the winter they are easy to come by. However, the prices definitely go up by a noticeable amount in the off season and the quality significantly decreases.
The biggest difference between the East Coast and West/SW is the bang-for-your-buck. Getting a burrito out there sets you back at least 10 bucks, in every single taqueria I had been to. And then, about half the restaurants are total garbage. The other half ranged from decent to good (Not very good though). But that is my experience and I am sure there are some very good places on the East Coast.
I still believe that technique of the chef/cook is more important. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is the responsibility of the cook to understand the ratios, seasoning, how long to roast each ingredients, which chiles to use, etc than it is to get the utmost fresh ingredients. If you take Mole, which is a very complex, what is more important, the ingredients or the chef. My money is on the chef.
As New York is concerned, i think their Mexican offerings are sub par is because lack of good Mexican chefs. Even the basic burrito i get lacks in flavor than what i find in SD/LA/Chicago, not to mention the fact some places prepare it like a pillow, where you knife and fork it. I will say that two places opened near me which are promising, but they are still few and far between.
I voted Albuquerque. One of the the three most memorable meals of my life was there on the west bank of the Rio Grande (mega rep if somebody can help me with the name-it was down in the river valley and surrounded by nothing but trees). I love New Mexican food, but here all we get is Tex-Mex. And go ahead and write this off as a ridiculous statement, but I prefer the Tex-Mex I can get in New Orleans to anything I had in Houston. Actual Texan Tex-Mex always comes off as bland to me. I do wish we had Taco Cabana though, the closest thing we have are a few run-down Taco Ticos and a bunch of Taco Bells.
You most likely have just had some bad restaurant experiences here, because no way would you be able to say that authentic Tex-Mex is bland and then turn around and say that you like Taco Cabana. That doesn't even make any kind of sense.
TC is several steps ahead of Taco Bell, but not even on their best day are they on par with a good Texan Tex-Mex restaurant, when it comes to flavor and quality. Not in a million years.
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